#my seth milchick stuff

[siobhom]

I MEAN THIS WAX STATUE THAT’S FIVE INCHES TALLER THAN YOU ACTUALLY WERE.

THEY GIVE US HALF A LIFE AND THINK WE WON’T FIGHT FOR IT.

LINES OF ALL TIME.

Both speaking out against the people who’ve had power over them for their whole lives. Both in the same episode. Both fighting against each other.

[thecindercrow]

Severance 1.07 | 2.04

[hclcnas]

𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁 🩹

[ironyscleverer]

It was such a stroke of genius to make Irving former military. So much about his character clicks into place with the addition of that one detail. Like, of course Irv starts out as the most pious and committed member of MDR, because he’s familiar with rigid structure, discipline, and obedience. But he’s also tough, brave, fiercely loyal, and has a strict moral code,* so once he’s convinced to rebel, he becomes the most fiery and critical of all of them. Even if he doesn’t know it, this isn’t his first rodeo; He understands the cult mentality better than the others because he’s no stranger to being treated like a cog in a machine. And he’s okay with it until he isn’t.

*not saying these are characteristics of the military, more that they’re aspect of Irv’s personality that might draw him to it

[optics-anddesign]

Ok but when Milchick goes to practice proper paper clip usage according to Lumon and he grabs the jar that is least used,,,,,, like it could be because he’s going to use them all and would prefer the ones he enjoys to be left over, or simply because there are more of them, but I also can’t get the idea out of my head that he is attempting to change things about himself Lumon didn’t even explicitly ask for. Because they hate him for everything he does, he’s aware what they’re asking is nonsensical and is only an issue because he’s doing it, and I just can’t get over the idea that when he grabs that jar of paper clips that he’s clearly never used before that it’s because he’s just started rejecting everything that makes him him, surely they’ll have an issue with it eventually, surely it must be wrong bc its what he wants to do, and everything he does is wrong to them, and maybe if he changes enough, without even being asked, they’ll accept him.

[comradecowplant]

*** weewoo weewoo, Severance rant incoming, avoid or gather 'round depending on your preference, weewoo weewoo***

oofda Severance went from what's gotta be the best episode in the series-- visually, emotionally, character drive, general plot development, etc.-- to probably the weakest. Dgmw, I absolutely adore Patricia Arquette's performance as this sad off-putting woman and was eager for a Cobel check-in, but back-to-back bottleneck episodes leading up the finale was a TERRIBLE pacing choice, just completely missing the mark in a season that has already been plagued with pacing issues-- I'm lookin' at you, beloved by many but meh to me bc I have never been a melly shipper & thought it was a frustrating cut-away from the previous episode's dramatic final moment, Woe's Hollow-- & did not really provide much new information/plot momentum to make up for it-- yeah yeah Cobel lifelong Kier cultist, child labor & mommy issues, groomed & exploited scientific prowess, Lumon ruining anachronistic ether-huffing towns economically & spiritually; didn't really dig deeper or meaningfully build on anything we already know of in a away that needed to be a full break-away episode for, imo. Coulda & shoulda been the b-plot to a Milchick's continued spirit breaking/background to Ms. Huang (which would have very much thematically tied together to each!) -focused episode. And considering how short the episode is compared to the rest, I kind of suspect it might have began production that way but it was changed for some reason further along, but that's purely vibes based speculation.

These pacing issues paired with the knowledge that there are only nine episodes a season in this silly era of television, I am increasingly nervous about the finale, particularly considering ms dipshit mama bear super sibling withOUT a background in neuroscience who thinks she knows better than the scientist who was already digging around inside his noggin Devon followed through and reached Cobel 🤦‍♂️ like, clearly there are cracks in Cobel's Kier worship/Lumon militancy-- I think she has an ego that 1) cannot forgive how tossed away she was, especially with the newest detail of her being the overlooked inventor of the severance technology, & 2) despite the indoctrination, she has enough self-preservation to bridge the cognitive dissonance that rationalizes Lumon's abuses now that it's HER that might get locked away in the mind wipe torture basement-- but you're watching a different show in a different universe if you think we've gotten any evidence to strongly indicate that she is actually trustworthy. As the inventor of the chip she could be the perfect person to help Mark with the final reintegration steps... or, as I suspect will be more along the lines of what will happen, she could activate any of the other "modes" that have so far been only eluded to/cause further brain damage/betray mark & ragbhari to leverage herself into a better position with lumon/whatever will benefit her in her quest for... well, besides survival & credit for her invention, I really can't say for sure what her motivations currently are, but legitimate compassion & concern for Mark/the innies certainly are not among them.

Idk, just overall I think this season has put its hands in too many plot pies, especially now that the other outies have been given more character development time, a choice I've liked overall but that has not been 😏 integrated 😏 well with the rest of the story, largely because (forgive my repeating myself) of the pacing/9 episode limit-- we've gotten the central Mark reintegration plot, then we have melly romance b-plot, dylan emotional affair with his own wife c-plot, outie irv + his relationship to the testing floor & whatever the fuck is going on with burt/his husband d & e-plot, milchick being racially micro-aggressed f-plot, ms huang & the spectre of child labor g-plot, nasty lady helena eagan & her sinister side swept blunt bang h-plot, whatever cobel's deal is i-plot, the general overarching What Evil Mysterious Schemes is Lumon Up To j to whatever plot, and finally, the most pressing plot point to me that has been frustratingly shelved until episode 7, What's Happening to Gemma plot. I don't expect nor want wrapped packages with bows, but satisfying narratives involve give and take, and I simply don't have much confidence in the real estate provided by the 49 remaining minutes of the season that we'll get much of anywhere (except mad over what bad things are likely about to happen to Gemma, that is one thing I have begrudging confidence in 😔)

[misfit-god]

Mark telling milchick that he has life stuff and that work is just work and following it up by asking if he knows what he means took a wrecking ball to my heart. Because he doesn't know what that means! Seth has dedicated his life to Lumon. He has nothing else

Oh Seth I'm so sorry. You deserve more

[iamdispleased]

Severance & Mythology .2

Time to talk about theories based Greek and Egyptian mythology.

Spoilers: S1 & S2

one. three.

First, I’ll start off with a summary of what I think is happening.

So, Milchick snitched on Cobel, and got her fired. Then, he got promoted to her position. Now, Huang is snitching on Milchick for petty reasons, and will get Milchick sent to the testing room. Huang will either be promoted to the manager of the Severed floor, and be even worse than Cobel and Milchick, or Cobel will come back. If Cobel is back, Huang will either love her, or continue to be insubordinate and do what she thinks is best.

(If you want the juicy stuff, I’d skip down to the ‘Milchick & Huang’ section.)

Cobel & Milchick

We were told about Cobel and Milchick’s fate in the very first episode. Specifically, when they are in front of the artwork in Cobel’s office.

The triptych depicts a storm, with Cobel in between the storm and skies, while Milchick is in front of typhons in the lower right hand corner. This symbolizes the battle between Zeus, the Greek king of gods, and Typhon, one of the deadliest creatures in Greek mythology.

Typhon was upset Zeus became king, so he attempted to overthrow him. Typhon actually succeeded, but Zeus came back, kicked his ass. Typhon was either sent to Tartarus, the Underworld’s prison, or buried under Mount Etna.

So, Milchick (Typhon) got Cobel (Zeus) fired (overthrown). Milchick (Typhon) got promoted (was king), but Cobel does not think he’s capable (battled again), and ends up back in power. This gets Milchick (Typhon) sent to the Testing Room (Tartarus/Mount Etna) .

Milchick & Huang

With Milchick and Huang, I believe their storyline is connected to that of the Egyptian gods, Set and Horus.

Osiris was the king of Egypt. Set, his brother, was jealous of him being king. Set ended up killing his brother, and attempted to take his role. Horus, Osiris’ son, and Set then had contests to see who would be king. Horus won all of them, and became the ruler.

This is told in the ‘Contendings of Horus and Set’, where the case is brought to the Ennead, a group of the most important Egyptian deities.

My thought process:

Milchick (Set) got Cobel (Osiris) fired (killed). Huang (Horus) snitched on Milchick to the board (the Ennead). In the end, Huang (Horus) will get Milchick (Set) demoted (loses contests). Huang (Horus) will then be promoted (become king).

I am rather confident about these associations, as the god Set is literally known as Seth, and is the equivalent of the Greek god Typhon.

Not to mention, in episode 5, the booklet of shame Milchick gets during his meeting with the board is called ‘contentions’.

Of course, this is not me saying that the stories of Huang, Cobel, and Milchick will follow these myths entirely, but I do believe they shed light on what’s to come.

tldr; Milchick and Cobel’s storyline mirrors the Greek gods, Zeus and Typhon. Huang and Milchick’s storyline mirrors the Egyptian gods, Set and Horus.

03/05/25 Update: Honestly, I’m starting to think that Graner was the one who snitched on Cobel. I’m fairly certain Milchick wasn’t aware of Selwig!Cobel, and Natalie cited that as one of the reasons she got fired.

[hellyrossum]

scattered non-comprehensive s2ep9 thoughts

at first i thought jame just invited himself into helena's house, but no, she still lives with him full time?? awful. she needs to get the fuck out of there. "i wish you'd eat them raw" fuck off man. she can't stomach being the perfect eagan heir; she never could.

miss eustice huang... that felt like not just her last scene in the season, but maybe the whole show?? which. makes me a little sad, honestly. i'd raised the idea to some friends after last ep that that ep might have been a good opportunity to include cuts to eustace as the b-plot to provide a grounding point / comparison for the related bits of cobel's backstory, and i'm feeling much more vindicated in that thought now. there's a lot you could do with a character like her, it feels like a shame to leave it here.

all the milchick stuff this ep is, as it has been through this whole season, spectacular. tramell tillman the actor you are. i really wonder what role he'll be playing in the finale, now that he's seemingly teetering on the edge of rebellion...

"[dylan] has to choose between one group of people or the other; choose which version of himself gets to be loved. and innies aren't made to be loved." <- shoutout to that last line basically calling the end of this arc this season. dylan g. tries to have what he as an innie can't, and so he loses both his outie's family and the remaining connections he had down here. and then he pulls what irving b. tried to, and there's no one to do for him what he did for irving. evil, evil show.

(dylan, whose world blew open when he learned he was a dad but will never get to meet his kids, telling miss huang it isn't her fault... augh. ...meanwhile, no one's there to reassure seth, tell him it isn't his fault. he has to say it for himself.)

related: when the dylan-helly convo started i was so excited to see the show highlighting their bond again. and then it stabbed me. i get it, dylan, but. somehow this season feels like it's been even harsher on helly emotionally than last season was. which, when she's your favorite character, means. pain. good pain, tbc

the irving and burt stuff... god. there's something about jon tuturro's facial acting in this ep that's so... he looks so young and desperate. makes the heartbreak hit so hard.

dr. mauer. the band-aid on his forehead from when gemma hit him with the chair... directly parallels mark's head wound and band-aid from when helly threw the speaker at him in s1ep1. which could mean nothing

so, reghabi was just, wrong about the innie cabin not being a viable option?? like, it'd be one thing if she said "there's no way we're getting in there", but instead she said "they're two completely different things," which to me at least implied it wouldn't trigger the switchover to innie mark. is it that there's something special about this cabin - and if so... why? why would they need a cabin that-- ...oh. right, that... was established as a thing that some work innies have experienced. ... killing jame eagan right now with my mind

mark calls devon persephone in s2ep2. in this ep cobel passes her off as “one of jame’s”. if lumon is the underworld, then... you see it, right. (in a way, mark s. is the "child" of jame's that devon is responsible for. a fucked way, but. that's the only read i have of this parallel that isn't. well.)

(helena has siblings she probably doesn't even know about, out there in the world. ...potential replacement heirs, if she fails her father enough times. ...almost makes me wonder if she was a bastard child, actually.)

living for the crumbs of devon interacting with mark s. <3

really surprised there was no ricken this ep. like, i can't imagine him showing up in the finale, and i was so expecting that we'd get one more scene with him this season to put a (temporary) bow on his subplot. maybe we'll get something with him calling to check in on devon??

speaking of the season finale, apparently it's gonna be the same length as this ep? not 76 minutes?? i mean, they wrapped a lot of stuff up in this one, but that's gotta be a very packed 44 minutes to contain the innie mark - outie mark convo (which better go hard as hell) AND whatever jame has come to helly for (so scared for that. sir don't you have cold harbor to be worrying about. are you going to use her as leverage against mark. or is this more personal.) AND the full explanation/demonstration of what cold harbor actually is AND THEN the break-in to the testing floor + mark-gemma reunion + escape attempt, along with outie mark meeting helly for the first time somewhere in there. and also hopefully dr. mauer getting what he deserves (killed <3 )

[barkingbarghest]

Something I've been thinking about a lot this season is how "The Jokerification of Mr. Milchick" has to be increasingly on the table, and I've seen several posts that ask along similar lines "how bought-in does Milchick have to be to put up with this," so I think it's not just me. The thing is, ever since he took over the severed floor, Seth Milchick has been subject to indignity after indignity after humiliation after failure. Where's the line? There has to be one. Even Harmony "went to Eagan religious boarding school and had an Eagan shrine in her basement" Cobel had a line, so where's Milchick's?

Since taking over the severed floor, Milchick was told essentially "use your best judgement" when deciding how to manage the fallout of the MDR uprising, only to basically immediately be told "actually, undo all that stuff you did, we want you to handle the situation this way instead". Undermined. His gift for his promotion is the art series of a brown-skinned Kier Eagan who nonetheless has blue eyes*. Insulted. Even the computer still reads Cobel instead of being updated to his name, and he has to personally harry IT to get it fixed. Frustrated. Mr. Milkshake.

Milchick is accustomed to handling people, and before the second half of season 1 he's demonstratably good at it, except all of that was coming from a place of assured power. He can smile and be patient with the severed employees both inside and out because he knows more than them and he can manipulate them. Now? He's running to catch up. He was always a cat's paw, but now it chafes. How much longer will he last?

*The Board's rationale for giving Milchick the paintings was "in the hopes that [he] will see [himself] in Kier" or somesuch, some appeal to those with Eagan true in their hearts, but even racial insensitivity and tone deafness aside Milchick's face in that moment is not that of a guy who seems to agree with that idea and feels that the sentiment is worthwhile compensation for his work. In other words, not someone bought into the religion of Eaganism. I'm sure that gift went over great with Harmony Cobel, but Seth Milchick is not Harmony Cobel.

And then, in this most recent episode, it's all brought to bare when Helena Eagan /orders/ him to act. Remove the Glasgow block. Do it, Seth. Milchick's relationship with Helena is so wild, but I really can't get into that or I'll be here all day.

My point is, every episode this season Mr. Milchick is kicked like a dog and I have to wonder what it'll take for him to snap - and furthermore why he does it in the first place. If he's not a True Believer like Cobel is/was, then why is he willing to go to such lengths for this project? Why does he want to manage the severed floor so badly? Why does he want to own this when, from where I'm standing, his job sucks and his only thanks is an insult?

[hclcnas]

𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚐𝚘𝚘𝚍 𝚗𝚎𝚠𝚜 𝚒𝚜 𝚑𝚎𝚕𝚕 𝚒𝚜 𝚓𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚍𝚞𝚌𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚊 𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚋𝚒𝚍 𝚑𝚞𝚖𝚊𝚗 𝚒𝚖𝚊𝚐𝚒𝚗𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗. 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚊𝚍 𝚗𝚎𝚠𝚜 𝚒𝚜 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚑𝚞𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚜 𝚌𝚊𝚗 𝚒𝚖𝚊𝚐𝚒𝚗𝚎, 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝚌𝚊𝚗 𝚞𝚜𝚞𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚎.

[ironyscleverer]

I can’t explain it but I love Seth Milchick in the same way that I love Claire from Fleabag. They both just try so damn hard.